Comments | juvenile_philos: Fundamental Atheism!

juvenile_philos

Fundamental Atheism!

Mar 28, 2010 23:12

This is part two of my thoughts on so-called "Atheist Fundamentalism". Part one can be found here.

I ended my last post with a promise to discuss "pushiness" when it comes to atheism. In doing so, I would like to give a bit of context. It is well-documented that atheists are a despised and hated group in the States. A 2007 paper[pdf] from the ( Read more... )

Comments 8

imani_cpe March 29 2010, 03:25:49 UTC

Just imagine how much it sucks to be a gay, black, atheist woman.

imani_cpe March 29 2010, 11:51:13 UTC

Yeah but at least you're really hot?

Good read Thom, thanks for the link.

-Asshat

anonymous March 29 2010, 07:45:56 UTC

I think the real issue is dogmatic thinking or faith based thinking. You find the issue any time an individual gives up his/her critical capacity to blind faith in another person's word/action. The more "infallible" the doctrine and the more implicitly (re: acritically) it is believed, the more obvious. Religion is an easy dogma to get other zealots to jump on your bandwagon...but it could just as easily be replacing religion with a political party or philosophy or government ( ... )

Dogma and Alliances ext_229520 March 29 2010, 13:15:22 UTC

I'm with Dani on the real issue being dogmatic thinking. When I run into atheists that annoy the hell out of me (thinking of the "fundamentalist atheist" idea from the last post), it's often due to their very dogmatic approach: "There is no god. How dare you question that? You're a deluded [idiot/conformist/etc.]." Folks who ally themselves against these atrocities (atheist or otherwise) have a good cause, but coming across as a jerk doesn't sway people very far.

I like the idea of a (for lack of a better term) religious-atheist alliance against religion-based atrocities. (Would it just become a humanist movement in the end?) I wonder if this could actually be started on local levels. Chat with local churches, put out a call to local atheists... I'm going to see if anything like this exists here in Charlotte.

Re: Dogma and Alliances inmysocks March 30 2010, 17:00:09 UTC

I think that would just be a humanist movement. Lately the people preaching on campus have told me that humanism is evil for some reason. That goes up with one of the groups insisting that you could not be gay without eating feces in making me unwilling to talk to any of them.

Re: Dogma and Alliances ext_230010 April 2 2010, 13:03:30 UTC

How in the world is humanism evil?

...And who doesn't like eating poo?

Melissa

Re: Dogma and Alliances inmysocks April 2 2010, 18:03:02 UTC

well you start out with the premise that the christian god of that specific sect is the real one. the from that it follows that people are evil. so anything that helps people (and is not preaching at them to get them to convert) is turning from the loving god so he (and yes it is very certainly a he in this case) will make you burn in hell for eternity.
that is about as much explanation as I was given.
[small rant]
These were also the people that said that I did not have an open mind because I said that when trying to convince me that their god existed basing all of their arguments on the assumption that their conclusion was true would never work.
they also were trying to use examples of geology to support their arguments. they made the wonderful statements that 1) the southwestern united states used to be underwater therefore a global flood. 2)the Himalayas are an old mountain range and the Appalachians are a young one. 3) seashells found on high places can only be explained by a global flood, and they are somehow not found in ( ... )

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